Project Title

Project Title>

Principal Investigator

Principal Investigator

Description

Description

The hypothesis is that microbial secreted components of ASD-associated, but not healthy-associated gut microbiota ecosystems impart deleterious effects on colonocytes consistent with the gut pathology reported in autism. The specific aims are: 1) Screening of fecal water extracted from stool samples from 20 ASD and 20 control children for metabolites with proinflammatory effects on human colonocytes in vitro; 2) Derivation and characterization of chemostat-supported gut microbial communities from healthy and ASD subjects selected from the Aim 1; 3) Analysis of biological effects of secreted chemostat ecosystem products on human colonocytes in vitro.